Over the past three decades, video poker has become very popular. One of the most common variations of video poker is Five Card Draw Poker. In general, for a play of a Five Card Draw Poker game, a gaming system deals a player a hand of five cards face up from a fifty-two card deck of playing cards. The gaming system enables the player to discard none of, one of, a plurality of but less than all of, or all of the five cards from the player's hand. The gaming system replaces each discarded card with another card from the deck. After replacement of any discarded cards, the gaming system evaluates the cards of the player's hand against a paytable to determine whether the player's hand forms a winning hand associated with one of a plurality of different winning hand categories.
The paytable employed by the gaming system is determined based on the type of Five Card Draw Game being played. Table 1 below includes the different winning hand categories, example winning hands associated with the different winning hand categories, and awards associated with the different winning hand categories for different wager amounts for an example Jacks or Better Five Card Draw Poker Game. These winning hand categories are listed from highest to lowest ranking. In this example, the winning hands of the “Jacks or Better” winning hand category include a pair of Jacks, a pair of Queens, a pair of Kings, and a pair of Aces.
TABLE 1Winning Hand Categories, Example Winning Hands, and Awards forExample Jacks or Better Five Card Draw PokerAwardAwardAwardAwardAward(Wager(Wager(Wager(Wager(WagerWinning HandExample Winningof 1of 2of 3of 4of 5CategoryHandCredit)Credits)Credits)Credits)Credits)Royal FlushA   K   Q   J   10  25050075010004000Straight Flush10   9   8   7   6  50100150200250Four of a KindJ   J♥ J♦ J   3  255075100125Full HouseA♥ A♦ A   6♦ 6  918273645FlushA   J   8   6   2  612182430Straight8♦ 7   6   5   4  48121620Three of a KindQ   Q♥ Q♦ 6♦ 2  3691215Two Pair8♦ 8♥ 5♥ 5   2  246810Jacks or BetterK♦ K   8   7   2♥12345
Multi-play video poker games such as Triple Play Video Poker, Five Play Video Poker, Ten Play Video Poker, Fifty Play Video Poker, and One Hundred Play Video Poker have also become very popular. Such multi-play poker games employ a primary hand and one or more additional hands that are played simultaneously. In many of these multi-play poker games, the gaming system deals a primary hand of five cards from a deck of cards to the player and enables the player to discard none of, one of, a plurality of but less than all of, or all of the five cards from the primary hand. The gaming system includes any cards held in the primary hand (i.e., any non-discarded cards in the primary hand) in each additional hand. The gaming system then completes the primary hand by adding one or more replacement cards (if necessary) from the deck, and completes each additional hand by adding one or more additional cards from a separate deck.
FIG. 1 illustrates a screen shot of a gaming system operating One Hundred Play Video Poker, which includes one primary hand and ninety-nine additional hands. For a play of One Hundred Play Video Poker, the displayed additional hands are relatively small (compared to the displayed primary hand) and, for all intents and purposes, unreadable or extremely difficult to read. As a result, certain players of One Hundred Play Video Poker are often frustrated because these players are not able to determine which of the additional hands are winning hands. Indeed, such players may not even be able to determine which cards are included in the additional hands, much less whether those cards form winning hands.
In certain known multi-play poker games the gaming system attempts to solve this problem by, after determining whether any of the hands are winning hands, displaying a summary of the winning hands that includes a quantity of the winning hands associated with each winning hand category. However, due to the large quantity of hands and the relatively small displays of the hands, it is still difficult for a player to discern exactly which of the hands are winning hands.
A continuing need thus exists for gaming systems and methods that provide new and exciting card games that facilitate game play and increase player enjoyment.